James Joyce :: Ulysses : X Wandering Rocks part 2

James Joyce -- Ulysses -- Published 1922

Ulysses 10: Wandering Rocks Part 2

Miss Dunne hid the Capel street library copy of The Woman in White far back in
her drawer and rolled a sheet of gaudy notepaper into her typewriter.

Too much mystery business in it. Is he in love with that one, Marion? Change it and get
another by Mary Cecil Haye.

The disk shot down the groove, wobbled a while, ceased and ogled them: six.

Miss Dunne clicked on the keyboard:

-- 16 June 1904.

Five tallwhitehatted sandwichmen between Monypeny's corner and the slab where Wolfe
Tone's statue was not, eeled themselves turning H. E. L. Y.'S and plodded back as they had
come.

Then she stared at the large poster of Marie Kendall, charming soubrette, and,
listlessly lolling, scribbled on the jotter sixteens and capital esses. Mustard hair and
dauby cheeks. She's not nicelooking, is she? The way she is holding up her bit of a skirt.
Wonder will that fellow be at the band tonight. If I could get that dressmaker to make a
concertina skirt like Susy Nagle's. They kick out grand. Shannon and all the boatclub
swells never took his eyes off her. Hope to goodness he won't keep me here till seven.

-- Hello. Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, sir. I'll ring them up after five. Only those two,
sir, for Belfast and Liverpool. All right, sir. Then I can go after six if you're not
back. A quarter after. Yes, sir. Twentyseven and six. I'll tell him. Yes: one, seven, six.

She scribbled three figures on an envelope.

-- Mr Boylan, Hello! That gentleman from Sport was in looking for you. Mr
Lenehan, yes. He said he'll be in the Ormond at four. No, sir. Yes, sir. I'll ring them up
after five.

The vesta in the clergyman's uplifted hand consumed itself In a long soft flame and was
let fall. At their feet its red speck died: and mouldy air closed round them.

-- How interesting! a refined accent said in the gloom.

-- Yes, sir, Ned Lambert said heartily. We are standing in the historic council chamber
of saint Mary's abbey where silken Thomas proclaimed himself a rebel in 1534. This is the
most historic spot in all Dublin. O'Madden Burke is going to write something about it one
of these days. The old bank of Ireland was over the way till the time of the union and the
original jews' temple was here too before they built their synagogue over in Adelaide
road. You were never here before, Jack, were you?

-- No, Ned.

-- He rode down through Dame walk, the refined accent said, if my memory serves me. The
mansion of the Kildares was in Thomas court.

-- That's right, Ned Lambert said. That's quite right, sir.

-- If you will be so kind then, the clergyman said, the next time to allow me perhaps .

-- Certainly, Ned Lambert said. Bring the camera whenever you like. I'll get those bags
cleared away from the windows. You can take it from here or from here.

In the still faint light he moved about, tapping with his lath the piled seedbags and
points of vantage on the floor.

-- Yes, yes. Good afternoon, Mr Lambert. Very pleased to have met you.

-- Pleasure is mine, sir, Ned Lambert answered.

He followed his guest to the outlet and then whirled his lath away among the pillars.
With J.J. O'Molloy he came forth slowly into Mary's abbey where draymen were loading
floats with sacks of carob and palmnut meal, O'Connor, Wexford.

He stood to read the card in his hand.

-- The reverend Hugh C. Love, Rathcoffey. Present address: Saint Michael's, Sallins.
Nice young chap he is. He's writing a book about the Fitzgeralds he told me. He's well up
in history, faith.

The young woman with slow care detached from her light skirt a clinging twig.

-- I thought you were at a new gunpowder plot, J.J. O'Molloy said.

Ned Lambert cracked his fingers in the air.

-- God, he cried. I forgot to tell him that one about the earl of Kildare after he set
fire to Cashel cathedral. You know that one? I'm bloody sorry I did it, says he, but
I declare to God I thought the archbishop was inside. He mightn't like it, though.
What? God, I'll tell him anyhow. That was the great earl, the Fitzgerald Mor. Hot members
they were all of them, the Geraldines.

The horses he passed started nervously under their slack harness. He slapped a piebald
haunch quivering near him and cried:

-- Woa, sonny!

He turned to J.J. O'Molloy and asked:

-- Well, Jack. What is it? What's the trouble? Wait a while. Holdhard.

With gaping mouth and head far back he stood still and, after an instant, sneezed
loudly.

-- Chow! he said. Blast you!

-- The dust from those sacks, J.J. O'Molloy said politely.

-- No, Ned Lambert gasped, I caught a... cold night before ... blast your soul... night
before last... and there was a hell of a lot of draught...

He held his handkerchief ready for the coming...

-- I was... this morning... poor little... what do you call him... Chow!... Mother of
Moses!

Tom Rochford took the top disk from the pile he clasped against his claret waistcoat.

-- See? he said. Say it's turn six. In here, see. Turn Now On.

He slid it into the left slot for them. It shot down the groove, wobbled a while,
ceased, ogling them: six.

Lawyers of the past, haughty, pleading, beheld pass from the consolidated taxing office
to Nisi Prius court Richie Goulding carrying the costbag of Goulding, Collis and Ward and
heard rustling from the admiralty division of King's bench to the court of appeal an
elderly female with false teeth smiling incredulously and a black silk skirt of great
amplitude.

-- See? he said. See now the last one I put in is over here. Turns Over. The impact.
Leverage, see?

He showed them the rising column of disks on the right.

-- Smart idea, Nosey Flynn said, snuffling. So a fellow coming in late can see what
turn is on and what turns are over.

-- See? Tom Rochford said.

He slid in a disk for himself: and watched it shoot, wobble, ogle, stop: four. Turn Now
On.

-- I'll see him now in the Ormond, Lenehan said, and sound him. One good turn deserves
another.

-- Do, Tom Rochford said. Tell him I'm Boylan with impatience.

-- Goodnight, M'Coy said abruptly, when you two begin.

Nosey Flynn stooped towards the lever, snuffling at it.

-- But how does it work here, Tommy? he asked.

-- Tooraloo, Lenehan said, see you later.

He followed M'Coy out across the tiny square of Crampton court.

-- He's a hero, he said simply.

-- I know, M'Coy said. The drain, you mean.

-- Drain? Lenehan said. It was down a manhole.

They passed Dan Lowry's musichall where Marie Kendall, charming soubrette, smiled on
them from a poster a dauby smile.

Going down the path of Sycamore street beside the Empire musichall Lenehan showed M'Coy
how the whole thing was. One of those manholes like a bloody gaspipe and there was the
poor devil stuck down in it half choked with sewer gas. Down went Tom Rochford anyhow,
booky's vest and all, with the rope round him. And be damned but he got the rope round the
poor devil and the two were hauled up.

-- The act of a hero, he said.

At the Dolphin they halted to allow the ambulance car to gallop past them for Jervis
street.

-- This way, he said, walking to the right. I want to pop into Lynam's to see Sceptre's
starting price. What's the time by your gold watch and chain?

While he waited in Temple bar M'Coy dodged a banana peel with gentle pushes of his toe
from the path to the gutter. Fellow might damn easy get a nasty fall there coming along
tight in the dark.

The gates of the drive opened wide to give egress to the vice-regal cavalcade.

-- Even money, Lenehan said returning. I knocked against Bantam Lyons in there going to
back a bloody horse someone gave him that hasn't an earthly. Through here.

They went up the steps and under Merchants' arch. A dark-backed figure scanned books on
the hawker's cart.

-- There he is, Lenehan said.

-- Wonder what he is buying, M'Coy said, glancing behind.

-- Leopoldo or the Bloom is on the Rye, Lenehan said.

-- He's dead nuts on sales, M'Coy said. I was with him one day and he bought a book
from an old one in Liffey street for two bob. There were fine plates in it worth double
the money, the stars and the moon and comets with long tails. Astronomy it was about.

Lenehan laughed.

-- I'll tell you a damn good one about comets' tails, he said. Come over in the sun.

They crossed to the metal bridge and went along Wellington quay by the river wall.

Master Patrick Aloysius Dignam came out of Mangan's, late Fehrenbach's, carrying a
pound and a half of porksteaks.

-- There was a big spread out at Glencree reformatory, Lenehan said eagerly. The annual
dinner you know. Boiled shirt affair. The lord mayor was there, Val Dillon it was, and sir
Charles Cameron and Dan Dawson spoke and there was music. Bartell D'Arcy sang and Benjamin
Dollard.

-- I know, M'Coy broke in. My missus sang there once.

-- Did she? Lenehan said.

A card Unfurnished Apartments reappeared on the windowsash of number 7 Eccles
street.

He checked his tale a moment but broke out in a wheezy laugh.

-- But wait till I tell you, he said. Delahunt of Camden street had the catering and
yours truly was chief bottlewasher. Bloom and the wife were there. Lashings of stuff we
put up: port wine and sherry and curaçao to which we did ample justice. Fast and furious
it was. After liquids came solids. Cold joints galore and mince pies.

-- I know, M'Coy said. The year the missus was there...

Lenehan linked his arm warmly.

-- But wait till I tell you, he said. We had a midnight lunch too after all the
jollification and when we sallied forth it was blue o'clock the morning after the night
before. Coming home it was a gorgeous winter's night on the Featherbed Mountain. Bloom and
Chris Callinan were on one side of the car and I was with the wife on the other. We
started singing glees and duets: Lo, the early beam of morning. She was well
primed with a good load of Delahunt's port under her bellyband. Every jolt the bloody car
gave I had her bumping up against me. Hell's delights! She has a fine pair, God bless her.
Like that.

He held his caved hands a cubit from him, frowning:

-- I was tucking the rug under her and settling her boa all the time. Know what I mean?

His hands moulded ample curves of air. He shut his eyes tight in delight, his body
shrinking, and blew a sweet chirp from his lips.

-- The lad stood to attention anyhow, he said with a sigh. She's a gamey mare and no
mistake. Bloom was pointing out all the stars and the comets in the heavens to Chris
Callinan and the jarvey: the great bear and Hercules and the dragon and the whole jingbang
lot. But, by God, I was lost, so to speak, in the milky way. He knows them all, faith. At
last she spotted a weeny weeshy one miles away. And what star is that, Poldy?
says she. By God, she had Bloom cornered. That one, is it? says Chris Callinan, sure
that's only what you might call a pinprick. By God, he wasn't far wide of the mark.

Lenehan stopped and leaned on the riverwall, panting with soft laughter.

-- I'm weak, he gasped.

M'Coy's white face smiled about it at instants and grew grave. Lenehan walked on again.
He lifted his yachtingcap and scratched his hindhead rapidly. He glanced sideways in the
sunlight at M'Coy.

-- He's a cultured allroundman, Bloom is, he said seriously. He's not one of your
common or garden... you know... There's a touch of the artist about old Bloom.

Mr Bloom turned over idly pages of The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, then
of Aristotle's Masterpiece. Crooked botched print. Plates: infants cuddled in a ball in
bloodred wombs like livers of slaughtered cows. Lots of them like that at this moment all
over the world. All butting with their skulls to get out of it. Child born every minute
somewhere. Mrs Purefoy.

He laid both books aside and glanced at the third: Tales of the Ghetto by
Leopold von Sacher Masoch.

-- That I had, he said, pushing it by.

The shopman let two volumes fall on the counter.

-- Them are two good ones, he said.

Onions of his breath came across the counter out of his ruined mouth. He bent to make a
bundle of the other books, hugged them against his unbuttoned waistcoat and bore them off
behind the dingy curtain.

Mr Bloom, alone, looked at the titles. Fair Tyrants by James Lovebirch. Know
the kind that is. Had it? Yes.

He opened it. Thought so.

A woman's voice behind the dingy curtain. Listen: The man.

No: she wouldn't like that much. Got her it once.

He read the other title: Sweets of Sin. More in her line. Let us see.

He read where his finger opened.

-- All the dollarbills her husband gave her were spent in the stores on wondrous
gowns and costliest frillies. For him! For Raoul!

Yes. This. Here. Try.

-- Her mouth glued on his in a luscious voluptuous kiss while his hands felt for
the opulent curves inside her déshabillé.

Yes. Take this. The end.

-- You are late, he spoke hoarsely, eyeing her with a suspicious glare. The
beautiful woman threw off her sabletrimmed wrap, displaying her queenly shoulders and
heaving embonpoint. An imperceptible smile played round her perfect lips as she turned to
him calmly.

An elderly female, no more young, left the building of the courts of chancery, king's
bench, exchequer and common pleas, having heard in the lord chancellor's court the case in
lunacy of Potterton, in the admiralty division the summons, exparte motion, of the owners
of the Lady Cairns versus the owners of the barque Mona, in the court of appeal
reservation of judgment in the case of Harvey versus the Ocean Accident and Guarantee
Corporation.

Phlegmy coughs shook the air of the bookshop, bulging out the dingy curtains. The
shopman's uncombed grey head came out and his unshaven reddened face, coughing. He raked
his throat rudely, spat phlegm on the floor. He put his boot on what he had spat, wiping
his sole along it and bent, showing a rawskinned crown, scantily haired.